HONOLULU (AP) – Hawaii airs it out like no other team in the nation. The road Warriors will spend nearly 51 hours in flight for their five away games this season.
Hawaii and the Colt Brennan Air Show departed Wednesday for its first and longest road trip of the season – a 12-day journey during which it will face Louisiana Tech on Saturday, followed by UNLV a week later.
The 20th-ranked Warriors (1-0) are going to surprising lengths to adapt to the 5-hour time difference and to recover from the long travel.
For example, the team will stay on Hawaii time for the first couple days. That means practicing in the evening, eating dinner at 10 p.m. and holding team meetings at midnight.
bout this and says it straight: When we go and play teams, we lose time.”
Coach June Jones chose to keep the team on the mainland for nearly two weeks to avoid traveling back and forth to the islands. The Warriors last stayed on the road for two weeks in 2003 when they faced Southern California and UNLV. They lost both games.
Under Jones, the Warriors are 50-20 at home. They’ve struggled with a 15-20 record on the road. Last year, the Warriors were 8-1 at Aloha Stadium and 3-2 away.
“Hawaii has had a history of losing on the road and we want to break that,” receiver Davone Bess said.
Located more than five hours by air from the West Coast, every away game is a major trip for Hawaii.
While many teams complain about how difficult it is to travel to the islands, Jones said traveling east is “way worse.”
“They should try it. We sleep on the plane all night and try to get ready to play a football game,” he said. Traveling west is “not even the same ballpark (as) going east.”
The Warriors boarded two buses Wednesday afternoon for the 3,901-mile, 7 1/2-hour chartered flight to Houston. They were scheduled to arrive at their hotel Thursday at 8:15 a.m. CDT, or 3:15 a.m. Hawaii time.
They’ll practice in Houston twice before flying to Monroe, La., on Friday night to board a bus for a short ride to Ruston.
After Saturday night’s game against the Bulldogs, the team will return to Houston where it will stay several days in preparation for UNLV in front of dozens of NFL scouts.
The team will fly to Las Vegas on Sept. 14 to play UNLV the following day. The Warriors will leave Las Vegas early Sept. 16 for their 6-hour flight home.
That’s if everything runs according to schedule and the team doesn’t run into any delays.
“You never can predict the elements,” Brennan said. “Every time we travel is different. We don’t know what our obstacles will be, but we know we have to overcome them.”
Brennan said it’s much easier for teams to play in Hawaii because all the players just have to stay up late to adjust to the time change, while the Warriors are forced to sleep and wake up earlier than normal.
“It’s a lot harder to get up early at 3 in the morning and go play a football game at 7 in the morning,” he said. “So people tend not to respect us, and that’s why we’re always an underdog.”
Not so for Saturday’s game. Hawaii is a 28-point favorite.
Jones said he’s scheduled nonstop study sessions and team meetings, so there will be little time for distractions. He also said the long-trip will be a good time to bond as a team.
Brennan said despite the long road trips, playing for Hawaii is worth it.
“You know what man? We live in paradise and that’s the price we pay to live here,” he said.
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